Board of Health: December 8, 2020

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:10 Hosts of outdoor gatherings of greater than 25 people will be required to provide advanced notice of the gathering to their local Board of Health. Indoor theaters and performance venues and higher contact indoor recreation businesses will be required to close to the public. Outdoor theaters and performance venues will be limited to 25% capacity and no more than 50 people. In all communities, capacity will be reduced to 50% to 40% for the following sectors. Arcades, indoor and outdoor recreational businesses, driving and flight schools, gyms, healthcare, health clubs, libraries, museums, retail offices, places of warship, lodging, common areas, golf facilities, movie theaters, maximum 50 people per theater. This new capacity limit will not apply to sectors that do not currently have a percentage-based capacity limit, including restaurants, laboratories, and close contact personal services. Restaurants and venues. The Administration also announced new guidelines for restaurants and other venues with seated dining, including patrons must wear masks at all times except when eating and drinking. Restaurants must seat no more than six patrons per table. Restaurants must impose a 90-minute time limit on tables. Musical performances at restaurants will no longer be permitted. Food court seating must be closed in malls.

1:44 Customers are encouraged to dine only with members of the same household. Offices and gyms. And offices, employees must wear masks at their place of work when not in their own workspace and alone. Employers are encouraged to close or limit the use of break rooms. Patrons must wear masks at all times and gyms. So those are some pretty big changes. They will be revising a lot of the sector guidelines. Those will be coming out in the next couple of days. They thought they’d have everything completed by Friday when we have an additional public health meeting with the state. And that way they’ll be prepared for this weekend. I was surprised that the change about restaurants, I didn’t realize that people could have masks off when not eating before. One of the concerns that has been occurring with restaurants is that you sit down with a group of friends, you eat, and then you start to linger. They wanted to make sure that they had that 90-minute limit so you couldn’t just sit there and drink for four hours. Also, if you’re not eating, they really wanted to put a mask on. Obviously, they want you to make sure you’re wearing a mask when you’re walking to the bathroom or any of those other areas. You still have to wear a mask walking into the restaurant and essentially until you’re seated. Once you’re seated, you’re supposed to wait until food or drink is in front of you before you take it off.

3:18 As far as numbers, it has been a really tough week in Marblehead. We’ve had 64 cases since December 1st. And really, it’s all across the ages. We’ve had nine cases from zero to 19. We’ve had 10 cases 20 to 29. We’ve had three cases 30 to 39, five cases 40 to 49, 15 cases 50 to 59, 14 cases 60 to 69, seven cases 70 to 79, and one case an 80 plus. Obviously, a lot of it’s due to informal social gatherings. So really, remember to wear your mask. Remember to socially distance yourself and really try to avoid people outside of your family. As far as the case report, we added some additional information this week. And I think we’ll continue with that. So we’ll continue to have the active cases in the graph. We’ll continue to have the case count for the last 14 days and we’ll continue to have the average daily incident rate. Michelle, is there any other information that you think would be prudent to have on there or do you think that covers kind of everything that we need to show? I’m you. Say that again, Michelle. You’re muted still.

4:48 Still can’t hear you. You don’t like my hand signals here? No, I think that covers it. The last big announcement is that yes, we have set up testing for Marblehead residents. Great. So we have four days of four hour blocks. So we will be providing testing and the testing is being provided by Kotaldo or Atlantic Ambulance. It’s going to be Friday, December 11th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday, December 15th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday, December 18th 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. And Monday, December 21st from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is Marblehead residents only. We will set up a preregistration system. We hope to have this up and running tomorrow morning. Kotaldo Ambulance system is providing this preregistration system to us. So you need to preregister before you come to the event. The event is being held at Temple Emmanuel, which is 393 Atlantic Ave. Where do you register preregister? So we will provide a link on the same posting depress release on the town website. And so you can go to this, take that link and go to the online and preregister. We’ll be able to handle about 300 people per four-hour block.

6:20 And would you know when that’s going to go live? I already have people texting. Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of people. I’m waiting for it to come from a Kotaldo Ambulance. They’re the ones that build it. And as soon as I have it, we will post it. And there have been talking about that being only for symptomatic people. Is that still accurate? No, it’s going to be for anybody. So any Marblehead resident that is concerned or wants to get tested, it’s open to them. And it’s free. And it’s free. Yep. Good. It’s about time. That’s great. And that, you know, obviously with the sector changes, public health has really been driving the governor to make some changes. We’re hoping that this will make a difference and start to bring our numbers down or at least flatten the curve. But we need everybody to participate. We need everybody to be vigilant. We know a lot of people are tired at this point, but you need to continue on. You need to dig deep. Do what’s right for the community. Do what’s right for your family, your friends, and everybody. So please remember to do all that stuff. So could I just ask, it might have been so last week, but if you quarantine, we don’t have to do the 14 days. It’s now 10 days. No, so it changed again. So last week, it was 10 days. I can’t believe you that. Yes. So we have a new quarantine guidelines out by CDC.

7:51 So there’s essentially three different ways you can quarantine. So you can be released on day eight. If you have a PCR or antigen tests on day five or late or, or later that comes up negative and you can’t have any symptoms during that period and you need to continue to monitor your symptoms for a total of 14 days. You can release on day 11 if you have no symptoms and you don’t need a test at all, but you still have to monitor your symptoms for 14 days. And you can release, you can, if you’re on quarantine, if you’re quarantined, you can be released on day 15. If you experience symptoms, but you still have a negative test. So kind of three different options for that. And that’s from the day that you received your positive test. That day 11, if you’re asymptomatic. Nope. So a quarantine is a person that’s a contact. Isolation, isolation is for a COVID positive individual. So these are all for contact. Could you review that day 11? When would one use that? So day 11, if you don’t want to get tested at all. So you’re a contact, you’re refusing to go get tested, or you don’t want to get tested for, you know, whatever reason. You can come out of quarantine on day 11 if you have no symptoms at all, but you still have to monitor your symptoms for a total of 14 days. Like take your temp and…

9:23 Yeah. But you could go back to work or whatever. Yep. Or to school. Yep. Okay. Up to 14 days. Kind of confusing, but… Now, there are some risks to this, but, you know, the CDC has kind of provided those risks to us. It’s about a… There’s a 12%… As much as… As high as 12% chance that we’ll miss somebody on that day eight. There’s like a 5% chance that we’ll miss somebody on that day 11. But we feel that we’ll actually get more compliance by reducing the number of days of quarantine. What’s the percentage on day eight? Day eight as high as 12%. Yeah. Yeah, I think they say on the CDC site that like, you know, whenever they introduce these new adaptations to isolation and quarantine, it’s also to, you know, accommodate people being able to reintegrate into work and school, et cetera. It’s like, you know, it’s a risk calculation that they’re helping people make. Yeah. And that’s, you know, that’s totally correct, Michelle. You know, a lot of problems that we’re seeing is that because of equity, you know, people aren’t able to stay in quarantine for 14 days. They might lose their job. So they’re going to work regardless of symptoms. So if we, you know, change the numbers slightly, we might get better compliance with it. And so those are all the things the CDC take a look at when they’re adjusting some of the stuff.

10:57 You know, day five is really… You should be symptomatic at that point. But yes, it could be as long as 14-day incubation period. Well, thank you for giving that because that’s different than it was last week and different than it was the week before. And the hard thing about this is that we got no warning that these… Either time that these were changing, that it literally came out during the governor’s announcement. We had no clue. So we had to backtrack. You know, like I said, we’re getting these huge number of cases on a daily basis. So we talked to everybody all day long. The governor comes out at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and makes this large announcement. We’re not aware of it. Now we have to call all these people back. You know, and we also feel like, you know, people are like, well, you don’t know what you’re talking about. So it can be, you know, very… Be problematic for us. Well, you’re doing a great job. Just keep at it. Do we know roughly… Most people are symptomatic by five days. Do we know roughly what percentage are or what percentage of people aren’t? Is that data known? No, I mean, I’m sure there might be some data out there, but that’s not data that I have seen. And I don’t believe I’ve seen data about the percentage of people that are asymptomatic either. So, you know, obviously somebody that’s not showing any symptoms at all but is still positive. And obviously that’s a concern with the younger ages that will have, you know, have more asymptomatic people.

12:33 They’re unaware with it. They’re going about their business and just spreading it around. And that’s obviously why mask wearing is important and the social distancing and trying to stay within your family. Is the two-year-old that was diagnosed, is that from out of it? So I can’t speak about cases in that fashion, but yes, we’ve had cases as low as two. I just didn’t know where the person resided. Yep. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, when you take a look at the state data, the zero to 18 or the zero to 19 is the second largest group, you know, the second largest group with cases across all the age ranges. Yep. And we had one loss since the last meeting also, is that correct? No, we talked about that at the last meeting. We did. I believe so. And maybe not only, maybe it came out in the report, but yeah, we’ve had at least one additional loss. And we’ll continue to review the death certificates. John, did you have anything else to add or did you want to talk about something? Yeah, sure. John Bucky, Superintendent of Schools. I’m going to ask you this question. In the weekly update last week, I talked about travel guidance, which raised some questions.

14:05 And I just want to clarify that if someone is planning on traveling over the weekend, it does not meet the spirit or the letter of the regulation to get a COVID test on Friday. Travel Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then use that Friday test result to return to school on Monday. Is that my correct read of the regulation? Obviously, we want people to take appropriate actions and think about others before they travel. And there’s always risk when with moving around the country at this point. Obviously, people can be traveling to, you know, the middle of nowhere to my cabin in the woods. And, you know, I’m going to say I’m not going to expose anybody there. However, the concern is, is that I might be a positive case that has traveled into the middle of the woods in this very small community. And now I become positive and I need medical services and I could be overflowing their medical services at that point. So there’s a concern about us moving around. We have to be cautious about moving around and we have to do what’s right. And we need to make sure that if we’re traveling all the time and traveling to these populated areas, that you really should be trying to do the best thing you can. And taking a test on Friday and using that test, I don’t think is in the spirit of the law. Thank you, Andrew.

15:36 I appreciate the collaboration with the Board of Health and you as the director. It’s very helpful for me, not being an epidemiologist, not being a public health expert, to know that I can work with the people in the community. So appreciate the support. I mean, obviously, John, these are always very tough questions. We’re never going to make everybody happy. And sometimes we have to pick and choose our battles. And like I said, sometimes we’re never going to make everybody happy. And that’s just the way it is. Not everybody agrees with these regulations, but we need to think as a community and not just as an individual. So what I do might affect my neighbor and might affect, you know, Mr. Smith two doors down, or it can affect when the teachers in the school. Yeah, Mr. Smith, you know, who’s walking the trail. Yeah, that’s how it works. And so we all have to try to do our part, mask up, socially distance ourselves. And really, you know, we are under a stay at home advisory and we need to try to listen to that. The governor made, you know, a very long speech today. He was getting rather upset that people were not doing the right thing. And therefore, we’re going to have to start going backwards. If we don’t see results from this last rollback, he’s going to have no choice to continue to roll it back. And as sports comes this winter, there is a concern about indoor sports, indoor competitive team sports.

17:07 And so I think that’s something a lot of the directors are talking about on the North Shore, and we will be talking about on Thursday. And we might see a rollback of the start of those sports until maybe January 6th. But that’s something that we will decide talk about on Thursday. Michelle. Yeah, I actually wanted to raise I was going to raise this when Helene talked about some of the reopening stuff that I thought I’d raise it now since you brought it up. But I did have a conversation today with the the chair of the Swanscott Board of Health. And we were just chatting about this because we were reading the MIAA statement on winter sports and sports specific modifications, which I know Helene is probably familiar with the document. But I know you are, Andrew, regarding, I guess, the start date of mid-December. And now you’re saying that that may get pushed back to get pushed to early January. Yeah, there’s been a lot of conversation and concern about indoor. I just get to make sure I have the warning right. Indoor competitive team sports due to current state status of Essex County. So this this document, which I can send around, it comes from the MIAA statement on winter sports and sports specific modifications. And the part that’s interesting here, I’ll read it. It says the MIAA board of directors voted to approve sports specific modifications for the winter season.

18:41 These modifications will continue to be reviewed as they relate to current regulations surrounding. And maybe. Hope you’re not speaking. Thank you. Continue to be reviewed as they relate to current regulations surrounding COVID-19 and may be modified if necessary. Additional modifications of the decision to participate in MIAA recognized winter sports will be determined by local school districts and or their local board of health. You may view the task force presentation here anyway. There’s a whole presentation. But anyway, what was interesting about that was the designation of local board of health and or local school districts, which is unusual, I think, in that generally boards of health are not put in the position of making decisions about school sports, which is this is a departure, I think, from how things usually are. So it does beg a mechanism, I think, for which is probably I’m guessing through some form of the reopening committee or whatever. But for us to have, you know, really active discussions regarding, you know, decision making and any concerns we have as a board about winter sports. It’s just interesting. It does give, I think, a little bit more involvement for board of health in decision making around, you know, it just seems like a departure for me from how things usually are worded around school sports.

20:27 Well, I’m preempting my report, but five of the four of the five sports that are being considered in December for December 14th, they’re indoors. The only outdoor one is skiing. So it would affect the program. So there’s a Northeast directors meeting on Thursday, Andrew? No, so the I’m meeting with John Bucky and the school athletic director and Dan Bauer to discuss this. And I believe a lot of the superintendents have been discussing this issue. Right. So wouldn’t be just one town that would make a decision that would be doing it as a district or as a district or a region. Yep. Well, we’ll look forward to hearing. And we have I know we have another meeting planned for next Tuesday. So that’s good timing. We’ll hear where you land and what you’re thinking. But I mean, certainly, you know, sports have been a concern for many folks, you know, throughout the fall season. But as we move those sports inside. Yeah, this is this is a bit of a crazy time. I know I certainly have my concerns. Well, two schools in the Northeast Conference have already pulled out.

22:03 Main classical and English. Yeah. I mean, I think we have to think about, you know, the safety of those kids and the perpetual, you know, the. The potential spread from from those sports. And I know nobody wants to give it up, but these are. Difficult times. Not the usual year. No. Is there anything further in your report, Andrew? No, that’s it. So, Helene, well, we hear your reopening committee update and then we’ll move to public participation. And after that, we’ll do an executive session. Well, I have my boss here. So that’ll be good. He called a brief meeting for November 30th and some of the items were repeat. So I’m going to give you I’m going to make it even more brief because there were changes from one week to the next. So it was approached a little differently. But on November 30th, which was the day the school opened, the superintendent had a meeting and he wanted to reiterate a few things that the administration should let the teachers know if the student was ill and report it and have them report it to the principal. He encouraged the principals and the administration to feel free to reach out to the superintendent or the assistant superintendent. He’s been very open.

23:34 He’s been very concerned. He’s been very proactive. And I would say that even if he wasn’t here. So I just feel that that needs to be said. The health and safety committee still agrees to keep the hybrid in place as they returned. And they did. The teachers are in a good place. And one of the concerns from one of the administrators was if you have students in the school or have ever had them in the school, whether it’s an excuse or an unexcused absence. That’s a big deal, whether it’s excused or unexcused, especially when you get up into the upper grades. And the high school had made an excuse so as to encourage all those who have traveled will stay home and will do what they’re supposed to do. And so the absence for that were excused. I don’t know what’s going to happen. That wasn’t discussed about a weekend travel. That was more for the Thanksgiving travel. And if Dr. Bucky needs to step in and correct me, he should feel free to do that since I’m reporting his meetings. The other interesting thing that we’ve talked about that people have questioned and have been concerned about is the custodial, the outside custodial health that we’ve had. They have downsized from 30 hours to 13 hours. And even the shift has moved to be a shorter shift.

25:05 And they have not stopped disinfecting. It’s going on nonstop. And things have not been skimped or there’s been no short change. It’s just the way that they’ve gotten used to what they’re doing. And this is where it falls right now. 13 additional custodians on the outside cleaning force. And people were asked if they have evening meetings to let them know so that the custodial health will be there. And we’re still very, very concerned with keeping everything sanitized and clean for our students so that that will not be an issue. He did say that he was going to continue having the weekly meetings because, as you know, this is an important time right now. So that was mostly what we did discuss, the athletics. But it was saying that we had similar to what we had on December 7th and we went more into it then. And we’re now going to go on to this past Monday, yesterday, December 7th. And the statement was made about people testing that have been away. And Dr. Bucky also got a slew of emails about people with elective travel. That’s how we opened up about the skiing, the weekends, the different than what we were talking about as far as Thanksgiving.

26:37 And Thanksgiving certainly is included, but there’s now another concern of people taking short trips. And the families have to test. Children under 10, the parents will test. If it’s over 10 years old, the students will test. And the PCR is what they recommend. And people asked about the at-home test. And that is not acceptable. It’s not considered PCR. And we’re going by the Mass Department of Public Health and the CDC. And that’s what they need to do. And then on to the athletics. There are 145 high school students that have signed up for the winter athletics. They are, whether they remain, basketball, ice hockey, skiing, gymnastics, and swim dive. They are not having wrestling and they’re not having indoor track. As it was at the meeting, they will begin December 14th, which all bets are off, I guess, as soon as you have a meeting. And then the games will begin on January 9th with that date of December 14th. So that’s a moving target. Lynn Classical and Lynn English are not participating in the Northeast Conference this season. They didn’t say that, but as we know, they’re considered inner city communities or one community, but two schools.

28:12 As far as spectators, I guess that was decided with the Health and Safety Committee at the time that two spectators are allowed in for each student, for each athlete. And then if we go beyond that, the football, the cheering, and the indoor track should be pinned February 22nd. Again, I’m sure that that might change. Dr. Bucky was very clear in saying that he’s reevaluating every day. And it could even be when changes happen. It could be by building or by district, because even now they’re discussing the Wednesday, whether it be hybrid or whether it be remote. So various schools are doing within our school, various schools, even middle school, high school elementaries are thinking about different things that they wish to do. One thing that the nurse said, Deanna has been very good, and Dr. Bucky complimented her, so I should give her a shout out for this meeting. She’s been working day and night, and she’s doing a tremendous job. She said that there’s not a lot of positives. It’s mostly the quarantine that is keeping the students out of school. And waiting for the tests is the difficult part.

29:43 So it’s not like we have, you know, everybody falling by the waysides with with COVID. We it is certainly an uptick, but it’s people that have been exposed in various places or that they have traveled. And the protocols are working. So I think that we must commend everyone for that and for all the people that have been working on the protocols ever since the summer. One of the department has has retired, Kathy Hennessey, she has retired, head of the technology department. So we all gave her nice congratulations. And I know that the superintendent and the team has been interviewing, but we didn’t hear who’s the replacement, but we’ll probably hear that next week. And that’s all I have. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so. There was a lot. It was great. I do want to say thank you to Kathy Hennessey. It’s been a pleasure working with her over the years. So thank you very much. And please pass it on to her. OK, I just felt that that was part of the reopening that that was important. But thank you for allowing me to be to be able to do this. It’s a pleasure for me. And it’s nice to be in touch with the school department and to remind myself of when I served as a school committee member.

31:14 And just to reiterate the travel advisory. So you need to pay attention to the destination where you’re going and follow their travel advisory, as well as the state of Massachusetts travel advisory for returning home to Massachusetts. It is on the honor system, but we know this is the only way we can get through this pandemic is for people to participate and do the right thing. So please, people do the right thing. Follow the guidelines. Make sure you’re doing the right thing. And remember to wear a mask. Social distance yourself. Wash your hands and stay home when you’re sick. Could you just respond to the weekend like people that have ski houses or want to visit friends that have ski houses or they just want to go for the day to name to ski or they have to. They need to educate themselves and go onto the mass.gov website. Read the travel advising for themselves to make sure you’re doing the right thing. They all also have to take a look at the regulations to the state or the location where they’re going to. So for the state of Maine, they have new regulations. The state of New Hampshire, Vermont. You need to look at all these different things as well as Colorado. You know, obviously we’re not allowed to travel into British Columbia. Currently California, all these different locations, New Mexico, Utah. Each state has their own regulations that we need to abide by. And then when you’re returning home, you need to abide by the state of Massachusetts regulations also. Or to the point of Massachusetts.

32:45 Yeah. You need to follow the yeah, take a look at it. Make sure you understand it and do what is what you’re supposed to do. Yeah. I mean, you know, you want to be able to go ski in Vermont. It’s very burdensome to be able to figure out, you know, over the course of that winter vacation, to be able to fit that in given the amount of time you have to quarantine. And, you know, and then to be able to quarantine when you get back and then test and whatever. And then there’s a lot that you need to do to make all of this possible and to be able to really follow those rules. So Andrew’s right. Like you have to read it down to a tee to really understand all the nuances if you’re going to follow these regulations. And really, that’s the only way we’re going to keep our community safe. And just like the quarantine guidelines that we went over about testing out, we’re still testing out for travel guidelines, but you have to follow those. You have to be able to provide proof that you have a negative test. So please follow the guidelines. Yes, they might change. We just set a change in sector specific regulations and guidance. So please continue to go to mass.gov. Really the best option option though is just don’t travel. Just give me a shot. We’ll weather this.

34:18 Elaine, thank you for the report. Thank you. For your continued service to that committee. As I said, thank you for allowing me to do it. Of course. So we’re going to open up to public participation. Like we’ve done in previous weeks, if you could. Yes, Michelle. I had another COVID community concern that came in that I wanted to share. Do you want me to do it after public comment? No, you can go right now. I’m not sure. I’m just, this is going to come up in, in other public comments. I’m sure as well, but I’ve received a couple of community concerns. Through our social media messaging and a few people reached out to me by a text about kids playing sports in, in the parks where, you know, we’re not wearing masks. We’re not wearing masks. We’re not wearing masks. We’re not wearing baseball, et cetera, like groups of kids, not wearing masks. And, you know, I know that’s an area where, you know, it’s parks and rec. It’s not our kind of purview, but it’s another area. I don’t know what signage we have down at like. I don’t know what signage we have. I don’t know what signage we have. I don’t know what signage we have. Nor am I convinced that that will necessarily make a big difference. But, you know, these are, these were like probably.

35:50 You know, tweens, young teens. Who were playing sports. Basketball. Whatever. So that was like a lot of contact. So. It did occur to me that. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what signs or whatever that we put up that. You know, more, maybe more messaging about outdoor mask wearing that comes from the schools. Might be good. I don’t, you know, maybe more helpful reminders about what kids are doing outside of school. Since we have. A couple of school folks here. Whoa. Anyway. Yeah. So. Andrew, did we get those new signs over to the various schools? So, yeah, new signs have been placed up. You know, hopefully they will last in the parks and stuff like that. But we will continue to go back and make sure that they’re still there. And yes. And trying to see, you know, get more compliance. What about the ones on the street lights? The ones on the street lights should be going up. They should have been going up this week. So. These kids were, you know, like probably like my kids age. So, you know, like the. The staffs as we like to call those seventh graders, you know, but the seventh eighth grader age. So maybe I’ll give a shout to.

37:22 You know, those fabulous health teachers over at the veteran school or whatever. And they’re always, you know, they’re always going to be able to get to the top of the line. And I think that’s why we’re so good at chatting with their students about stuff. I don’t know. Just seems like any channels we can get to those guys. Would be great. Well, along those lines, I’ve heard of several. When the college kids are now back that they’re also. Having lots of groupies kinds of things. So we’re not going to be able to avoid all of it. It’s happening. This has been an issue since March with groups of children and people. And I think that’s something that we’re going to be able to do. This has been something we’ve been fighting for nine months. Yeah. All right. That was it. That was all I had. So as far as public participation, if you raise your hand, I will just call on you in the order that I see your raised hand. And. I see you. I’m at the digital raise hand, but you can go first. So go ahead. Thank you so much. I apologize for the. I have a couple of questions that I wanted to make to you. I’m. I’m on the board of health. I have a lot of technology issues, so if it doesn’t look like I’m looking at you, it’s because I’m using. All sorts of. Jury rig systems here. First. Thank you to everybody who’s on the board of health. I know. That you’re doing a tremendous job and a tremendous amount of work to keep us all as healthy as possible. And it’s definitely appreciated by me. And by many other people in this town, so.

38:54 Thank you. So we definitely are starting to make it more visible that people should be doing voluntary compliance. Based on the information and discussion we had at the last meeting, Board of Health, I did reach out to the Chief of Police to find out more about what they’re doing in terms of COVID, and I’d like to share that with everyone. I have four questions for the Chief, and the first one is, did they have a particular point of contact in the department that was handling COVID issues, and as of right now, they do not just call into the general number. The second question was, did they have a COVID outreach officer who was coordinating with the community, and they do not have that yet either. Number three, I asked if it would be possible for an officer to do not daily patrols, but occasional spot patrols on the rail trails to make sure that we were having increased compliance, and they have not done it yet. The Chief, that was not his first preference, but he would be happy to work with us if that’s something that we thought would be appropriate. He did ask for less law enforcement-based strategies, and I wasn’t sure what that would be, so I did ask him if he had any suggestions on what else we could be doing beyond having officers patrolling, and it is true that the fine for not wearing a mask in Massachusetts

40:25 when off your property is $300. My goal is not to have people getting tickets. That doesn’t really help anything. My goal is to increase voluntary compliance, and so the other end, in addition to reaching out to the Chief of Police, I did reach out to Chris Stevens, who is the editor of the Marblehead Reporter, to see if they would be willing to run more stories about compliance. She said she is completely open to if the Board of Health has a story that they wanted to run, if we wanted to have citizens do letters to the editor, she would be happy to run those. I also suggested using my PR hat, because this is really a PR issue, if we could do any sort of little thing like a section called I Wear My Mask, and we take pictures of people around town or people submit people themselves wearing masks and saying things like I wear my mask for my immunocompromised grandmother, or I wear my mask because my brother has asthma, and to sort of increase that peer pressure and that awareness that we’re not wearing masks just for ourselves, that we’re really wearing masks for other people. So at this point, I’m willing to assist the Board of Health if you want my help. If you don’t want my help, I get that as well, but if you have somebody on the board that helps to coordinate your community communications, I would be happy to have an ad hoc meeting with them about moving forward with some of these things.

41:59 So I don’t need an answer now, because I know you’re going into executive committee, but I wanted to bring that forward. So that was it. Thank you. Thank you. I see no other hands, so it’s time to go into executive session. And let’s see, what’s the motion? I’m looking at the agenda, Andrew, the exact wording to go in. I emailed you guys the exact wording today. Is it the big paragraph? It’s not the big paragraph. It doesn’t have to be, you know, yes, you can say that big paragraph. That’s fine. I have it right here. You want me to motion pursuant to the 30A, section 21A3, that the board move into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to litigation, the public discussion of which may have detrimental effect on the litigation position of the board. Votes may be taken, and if they are votes, if they are votes will be released at a time deemed appropriate by council. The board will reconvene in open session. Ms. Scolli? Dr. Dallczecker? Yes. Ms. Saisley? Yes. Ms. Hill? She’s… I was just trying to say in favor, unmuted.

43:33 Good. No, it’s official.